Emulator DraStic

Systems: Nintendo DS (nds) · Runs as: homebrew NRO (full-memory mode only) · Get it: github.com/NaGaa95/DrasticDS_nx (releases) · BIOS: required

Best effort: this guide is community-maintained and may lag behind new releases. The project itself (linked above) is the authoritative source — if anything here doesn't match what you see, trust their instructions.

DrasticDS_nx is a Switch port of DraStic, the long-running Android DS emulator, running its original ARM64 core natively with a launcher, renderers, and shaders bundled into one .nro. DS is a system the Switch handles well, so unlike the PS2 port this isn't a compromise — it's a second good option next to melonDS.

Because the core is the original Android build rather than an open-source reimplementation, there's no upstream Switch project to report emulation bugs to — the same situation as NetherSX2. Port-level issues belong on the repo above.

DraStic or melonDS?

Both run DS well on Switch. The real differences:

	DraStic (this page)	melonDS
Launching	Needs a game override (hold R)	Plain homebrew menu launch
Zipped ROMs	Reads .zip and .rar directly	Needs bare .nds — extract first
Extras	Shaders, Lua scripting, cover art, themes, per-game configs	Leaner
Saves	Under /switch/drastic/	.sav next to the ROM
BIOS filenames	nds_bios_arm7.bin etc.	bios7.bin etc.

Take melonDS if you want the simpler thing that launches from the album with no ceremony. Take DraStic if you want the shader/layout options, or if you'd rather not extract every zip HaulNX brings down. Running both is fine — they use separate BIOS folders and separate saves, which is the one thing to keep in mind if you switch mid-game.

Install

1. Download the latest DrasticDS.nro from the releases page and copy it to sd:/switch/.

2. Put your own DS system dumps in sd:/switch/drastic/system/, with these exact names:

   File	Size	What it is
   nds_bios_arm7.bin	16 KiB	ARM7 BIOS
   nds_bios_arm9.bin	4 KiB	ARM9 BIOS
   nds_firmware.bin	256 KiB	DS firmware

3. Launch it. Everything else under sd:/switch/drastic/ (cheats/, covers/, gamecfg/, shaders/, user/savestates/, and so on) is created for you on first run.

Different names from melonDS. These are the same dumps from the same DS, but the two emulators look for different filenames — copy and rename rather than moving files back and forth. See BIOS Files.

It will not run from the album. This needs the full memory and JIT services of a game override; applet/album mode has neither. Launch by holding R while opening an installed game from the Switch home menu, or use one of the launcher's forwarders. This is the single most common way to conclude the app is broken when it isn't.

Point it at your HaulNX library

The default game folder is sd:/switch/drastic/games/, but you don't have to use it:

1. Download DS games with HaulNX — they land in sd:/roms/nds/.
2. In the launcher, go to Settings › Library & storage and add /roms/nds as a library folder. Several library folders can be active at once, including USB mass storage and SMB shares.

Leave the games in sd:/roms/nds rather than copying them into /switch/drastic/games/ — one library, shared with every other emulator.

Format notes

• .nds works, and so do .zip and .rar without extracting — a genuine convenience over melonDS if your downloads arrive archived. HaulNX's own extract-on-download setting is then optional for this system.
• Save files and save states live under sd:/switch/drastic/, not next to the ROM. That's the opposite of melonDS and mGBA, and it's the better arrangement: pruning your sd:/roms/nds library can't take your saves with it.

Controls

L + R + Plus	in-game menu
L + R + Y / X	save / load state
ZR	fast-forward
ZL	swap screens
Touchscreen	stylus (handheld)
Right stick	stylus (docked)
Left stick	microphone input

Tips

• Screen layout is the setting that matters most. The DS's two screens have to share one display, and the right layout is per-game — dual-screen for most things, single-screen zoomed for games that only use one.
• Shaders: 17 are bundled (LCD1x, Sharp Bilinear, zFast LCD, DS/DS Lite/DSi colour variants, Natural Vision, and combinations). Adding your own shader needs a pre-compiled SPIR-V pack under Vulkan — there's no runtime GLSL compiler, so a plain .glsl won't load.
• Vulkan/NVK or OpenGL: both ship. Vulkan is generally the faster path; if a game renders wrong, try the other.
• Cheats are Action Replay format, per title, under cheats/.
• Optional frame generation (LSFG) needs your own Lossless.dll at sd:/switch/drastic/lsfg/Lossless.dll, Vulkan, and must be turned on before launching a game.
• Heavy 3D DS games still like docked mode and an overclock; most 2D titles run full speed at stock clocks.